Thin Crust Pizza (p8 January/February 2011 Cook's Illustrated) (veggie style for movie night, haven't decided as to what to do for toppings yet)
So the crust turned out pretty well, again I think I should have cooked it a bit longer. The big problem, in my mind, about this one was all the vegetables. So on this pizza, was 5 oz of onions (little more then half of one), 5 oz of red pepper (one) and 1.5 oz of jalapeno pepper (two). The Cheese was 8 oz of smoked mozzarella and 1 oz Parmesan. So I took the veggies and sauteed them for a bit (not that long) to get some water out, but clearly I didn't get enough out. The topping was just a bit much so I have to go back, do it again and make adjustments. Also, I added a bit of Frank's Red Hot Sauce (2 teaspoons) to the sauce, and that really didn't come through either. The goal was to make it spicy warm, and I don't think I did that. So the notes here is more Frank's, more Jalapeno and more time in the pan for the veggies and a little bit more time in the oven. It still looked good and tasted pretty good.
Spring Vegetable Pasta (minus the Asparagus) (p19 May/June 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
Why minus the asparagus? I try asparagus every 6 months or so, we both do, and neither of us particularly like it. It seems like something that I should like, but I don't. So I had to make some on the fly adjustments, because, well, I kind of didn't read the recipe all the way through and threw some stuff away that I shouldn't have. With the adjustments it still turned out very well. It made for a nice creamy veggie dish on a weeknight. Though it wasn't quite veggie cause I used some chicken stock (leftover) in combination with the veggie stock as well. It was an interesting way to make pasta (kind of like risotto). The thing I didn't find totally appealing was that there was some discoloration on the pasta by the end.
Indonesian-Style Fried Rice (Nasi Goreng) (p15 May/June 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
This turned very well and was very tasty. However, it was time consuming. From preparing the veggies, to preparing the shrimp, to making the rice to get it all together to cook it all in the last 15 minutes, it wasn't probably quite worth the time. Maybe I was just being slow, but it took 2 to 2.5 hours to do. That being said, I hate to admit that this was my first real experience with shrimp. And it turned out well. While the shrimp I used weren't the size that the recipe called for, because they were magically on sale this week, so I bought them on their bargain day, rather then paying quite a chunk of change a pound. I have to admit I did like the little rolled up slices of omelette were a nice touch and made for a tasty addition.
Juicy Pub-Style Burgers (p11 May/June 2011 Cook's Illustrated)
I really need a real exhaust fan in the kitchen. This can be clearly evidenced by high heat/high smoke cooking experiences. Why doesn't my kitchen have an exhaust fan? Well there is a chimney and I suppose that "counts" but when it comes down to it I have no idea. I've never put one in, and neither did the previous owners. The need of an exhaust fan was clearly evident when I made these burgers. We ended up opening windows to reduce the smoke level in the house. Anyways, I didn't really follow the recipe here (even though I want a meat grinder, I, as of yet, have been able to justify this purchase). So what I did was I got some of the George's Grind from Gateway (large grind certified angus beef), which does make a better burger then the normal smile grind stuff that you get out of the store, at least in my opinion. So I vaguely followed the recipe from there. Added the butter, all the good stuff and followed the recipe sort of from there. The problem that we had, and this was probably my fault, the burger kind of started to crumble a part when you started eating it. I used some of the Milton Creamery Prairie Dawn cheese and it made for a really tasty, if messy burger.
